Roles of the Educator

Setting an inclusive tone:

• Choose activities that encourage students to discover what they have in common as well as what is unique and special about each other.
• Create and implement clear class agreements or rules with your students regarding respect, caring for classmates and not hurting each other with words or actions.
• Make the most of teachable moments to reinforce these guidelines and build social skills such as listening, talking things out, conflict management, being an ally, developing friendships and the ability to work with students who are different (HRC, 2009; Ward, 2015).

Showing students the world:

• Expose students to diverse positive role models in literature, in your school and in your community.
• When inviting speakers or creating classroom displays, be inclusive of diverse family structures, races, gender expressions, ethnicities and abilities.
• Feature women and men in a wide range of occupations.
• Display images that encourage diversity and respect and posters that remind students that words can hurt.
• Have conversations about what these posters and images mean and how they relate to your class.
• Have books with diverse family structures, including two-mum and two-dad families, and characters in non-traditional gender roles on your bookshelves (Ward, 2015).

Your Caring Community:

• Integrate units on respect, family diversity, gender, name-calling and bullying into your teaching.
• Ensure that these units also reflect cultural, racial, gender and ethnic diversity (HRC, 2009).
• Be reflexive! Always be learning! 
• Ask your administration to organize staff development opportunities to explore issues of family diversity, gender, name-calling and bullying as a full staff (Available for free via Safe Schools, (Ward, 2015)).
• Be prepared for teachable moments. How will you respond to questions about sexuality, gender, etc… ?

 

 

 

Human Rights Campaign [HRC],. (2009). An Introduction to Welcoming Schools(1st ed.). Washington, D.C. Available via: http://www.hrc.org/files/images/general/An_Introduction_to_Welcoming_Schools.pdf

Ward, R. (2015). Safe Schools Do Better. Safe Schools Coalition Australia, La Trobe University. Retrieved from http://safeschoolscoalition.org.au